New Projects

Resilience

With a focus on structural and electrical hardening and vegetation management, the Eversource Energy Center is funding three new projects for the period of October 2016 to December 2017. The projects explore improvements to be gained from investing in these intervention strategies that improve reliability.

The results of Eversource’s $437 million System Resiliency Plan running 2012 through 2017, have been impressive to date. With a 50% improvement in overall reliability in Connecticut over the last five years, customers were able to count on reliable 99.98 percent of the time. Examples of resilience activities include structural hardening, electrical hardening measures, and strategic vegetation management practices in close coordination with town officials.

This study is focused on determining which of the resilience programs should be continued beyond 2017 to achieve maximum customer benefit. By identifying the effectiveness of individual resilience programs, we will contribute to a continued proactive approach for system investments and enhancements.

The project is exploring two approaches:
• A stochastic dynamic programming model – evaluating all possible combinations of resilience activities to find a solution that minimizes outages and maximizes reliability
• A decision tree, real options valuation approach – using fixed rules and costs to determine optimal courses of action

“The Benefit of Investing in Resiliency: A Dynamic Economic Analysis”
Fred Carstensen (PI), Peter Gunther (co-PI)
Reliable energy is a driver of business and economic growth. This study evaluates the benefits of a resilient electric distribution system and the relationship to Connecticut’s appeal as a great state to locate and operate businesses of all sizes.

This study will evaluate an array of Eversource’s investment strategies to determine linkages to business productivity and avoided downtime, job creation, potential growth in gross state product, and enhancements to state and municipal revenues. The study will include projections of additional benefits for homeowners when storms do not result in an outage.

The study is analyzing two significant areas of benefit:
• The avoided costs resulting from improved reliability
• The specific analysis of the resiliency in the face of major storms

This project is identifying the contribution of resilience interventions (i.e. tree trimming, installation of stronger poles, distribution system design improvements, and automation devices) for system-level power grid resiliency to prevent or shorten outages. We also focus on the interventions’ relationship to distribution system operational costs including utility crews and equipment. Greenwich, Connecticut, has been selected as a demonstration site utilizing high-resolution GIS data on the infrastructure and surrounding vegetation.

The specific objectives of the project are to:
• Capture the effect of resilience interventions on the occurrence of outages and effects on reliability metrics
• Conduct “what if scenario” studies to optimize the remaining or an expanded resilience budget
• Identify other modules or analyses that can be integrated into this modular approach

3-D Imaging for Modernization

As millions of people are seeing the world with the help of Google Street View, smart phones, virtual reality, and high-tech graphics, the Eversource Energy Center through this 3-D modeling research project is turning data into decision making.

This project is helping Eversource determine the most cost-effective suite of remote sensing tools for monitoring infrastructure and vegetation, reducing costs of data acquisition and assessing pole integrity, and optimizing trim cycles and data acquisition intervals based on vegetation growth rates.
The specific objectives of the project are to:
• Evaluate Geiger LiDAR and photogrammetrically-derived (aerial- and ground-based) 3-D point clouds for ability to detect utility poles, lines and vegetation
• Evaluate feasibility of manual utility pole mapping and inventory using 1) Google Earth street view and 2) spherical imagery collected during LiDAR pilot study
• Further develop algorithms for extraction of infrastructure and vegetation from 3-D point clouds as well as feature attributes
• Assess regrowth of vegetation after Standard Maintenance Trimming (SMT) and Enhanced Tree Trimming (ETT)
• Further develop pole structural integrity models

This project expands the existing LiDAR pilot research with a consideration of complementary or alternative technologies to develop new in-house capabilities for processing 3-D data, pole integrity models, and assessing vegetation annual growth rates after trimming.

Investigating Geomagnetic Disturbances

The sun’s solar flares have the potential to interrupt electric and telecommunication networks on a global scale. Investigating alternatives to the ways we transmit bulk power today, this research project is diving into the technological advancements that are able to withstand the force of the sun.

“HVDC Grid Hardening against Geomagnetic Disturbance”
Yang Cao (PI)

High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) applications and flexible alternative current transmission systems have been integrated in the Northeastern United States and Canada power grid for almost 25 years. There is an increasing interest in using clean energies such as hydropower and wind in New England, and HVDC lines provide a desirable option for transmitting bulk power over long distances. Similarly, HVDC submarine cables may be the only technical option for transmitting power generated by offshore wind resources. Research shows New England is the most susceptible area in the United States to geomagnetic disturbance (GMD), yet the GMD impacts on HVDC systems have not yet been simulated nor investigated in detail.

The specific objectives of the project are to:
• Identify potential impacts of GMD on one of the HVDC systems and on monopole operation
• Produce a guide for Eversource personnel on optimal deployment of blocking devices based on a predictive toolbox for GMD impact for HVDC/HVAC systems
• Produce a comprehensive state-of-the-art report on the sensitivity of coastal areas to GMD